The Perry Nuclear Power Plant will be deactivated in the next three years.
The Perry plant is one of three nuclear power plants closing. Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio and Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pennsylvania will also be deactivated.
FirstEnergy Solutions said the plants will continue to run normal operations in the meantime. FES is seeking legislative policy solutions as an alternative to deactivation or sale.
RELATED: Lake County waits to learn ultimate fate of FirstEnergy's Perry Nuclear Power Plant
About 2,300 plant employees are expected to be affected by the deactivations.
In 2017, the nuclear units contributed about 65 percent of the electricity produced by the FES generating fleet. The total capacity to be deactivated is 4,048 megawatts.
Don Moul, the president of FES Generation Companies and chief nuclear officer, said the plants have taken aggressive measures to cut costs, but the market values facing the units are still beyond their control.
"We call on elected officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania to consider policy solutions that would recognize the importance of these facilities to the employees and local economies in which they operate, and the unique role they play in providing reliable, zero-emission electric power for consumers in both states," Moul said. "We stand ready to roll-up our sleeves and work with policy makers to find solutions that will make it feasible to continue to operate these plants in the future."
In November 2016, FirstEnergy Corp., the parent corporation of FES, announced it would announced it would leave competitive, or non-regulated, generation due to weak power prices, insufficient results from recent capacity auctions and weak demand forecasts. FirstEnergy Corp. will continue to review FES's two remaining coal plants and one natural gas plant, totaling 5,245 megawatts, as part of that plan.
